Ever since elementary school ended, students have had to involuntarily wake up at 6 a.m. to catch the bus or a ride or walk to school. It is difficult for anybody to wake up at 6 a.m. for anything, whether school or work or even a flight, but especially hard to wake up for school. Middle and high school are days seven to eight hours long, full of learning about topics that might not be practical in the real world and engaging in socialization with unlikeable people. After those eight hours, most students spend at least two more completing homework. That is not to mention the two extra hours of sporting events and extracurricular clubs after school. College is similar: hours of classes everyday with, oftentimes, boring professors, extracurriculars and work afterward, and still hours worth of homework and studying required.
The expectations for students are ridiculous. To perform well in school, students have to show up every day (or with minimal absences), complete homeworks and ace tests on top of waking up to get to class every day. Humans need more than school and work hours. Socialization is not just a leisure activity but necessary for a health mind and life pattern. To fit in socialization, meals and extracurriculars, students often do not get to sleep before midnight or 1 a.m. Students cannot healthily keep these routines. Getting little sleep to make up for socialization on top of school, work and extracurriculars harms students health.
Waking up at 6 a.m. for a class that starts at 7 or 8 a.m. is extremely difficult, especially come college. High school students arguably have consecutively longer days than college students adding sports and possible jobs to them and also have more free reign to miss days or be late. College students are held responsible and often lose participation points when they miss classes, even bordering failing if they miss three or more classes.
Expecting a student to show up to class is surely reasonable; making students lose points and threaten their graduation if they miss class is not. Students get sick and stressed and lose an insane amount of sleep throughout the semester, oftentimes not getting more than four hours a night for long streaks at a time. Students need sleep. Students need to be able to recover aptly when sick, whether in high school or college. Students should not have to bear the stress of “if I miss a class, I might fail the semester.” Professors and school administrations should be more lenient on students missing class.
Starting classes later is not a viable solution, as it will only bring students to reason they can stay up later and wake up later. It will not fix any attendance or learning issues, only make days and routines weird and possibly even longer. Instead of starting classes later, students should have more ability to catch up on sleep, recover from sickness or even have mental health days to recover from immense stress the work load brings.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
